THE mother of Burnley-born Stuart Gaskell, who was shot dead in South Africa 16 months ago, today called for the death penalty for his killers.

Mrs Sheila Park spoke as the trial was beginning of four men accused of the brutal murder in Cape Town in January last year.

Mrs Park, who runs Eddie's Bakery on Manchester Road, Burnley, with her husband Edgar, was visiting her son and daughter-in-law Estelle when he was killed.

Today she told how she owed her own life to her son's calmness.

The death penalty is not an option in South Africa, but Sheila said: "A few years in jail, what is that compared to the effect Stuart's death has had on all the members of his family?

"When there are over 60 murders a day out there I suppose they think that Stuart's is just one more.

"For a crime as heinous as what they did to Stuart the death penalty is all these men deserve."

Stuart and Estelle emigrated from their Bacup home to make a new life in Cape Town six months before his murder. Estelle's parents already lived in Cape Town and the couple fell in love with the country and married there in 1993. Stuart, 26, was operations manager at a truck hire firm when it was targeted by a gang of armed robbers last January.

Estelle had just found out she was pregnant and had gone, with Sheila, to tell Stuart and then they were to celebrate.

Sheila said: "His wife stumbled on the robbery and when she didn't return to the car I walked into the office.

"I was bound and gagged to Stuart. I am sure that Stuart's calmness saved our lives. Then they got a knife and cut me free from Stuart and put Estelle and myself into a container and locked it.

"We thought we were being taken hostage because we could hear trucks reversing then we heard the two shots and I said to Estelle, 'They have shot Stuart,' it must be a mother's instinct."

Sheila said she will never get over what happened to Stuart, but she has photographs and a video of his baby daughter, Abigail, who was born last September.

She said: "He has a beautiful baby, the image of him, she is his absolute double. He would have been so very, very proud of Abigail. Now she is a baby without a father and Estelle is a wife without a husband."

Sheila is being informed by the Foreign Office of how the trial is progressing and also receives calls from family and friends.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks and Estelle, 26, will have to face the defendants as she is the main prosecution witness.

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